The Will of Sam Bosco
by Holz9364
Summary: Sam leaves something very important to Lisbon in his will, something that brings Lisbon & Jane closer. Just a oneshot


**The Will of Sam Bosco**

**A/N - Hello guys, this is just a little oneshot that is sort of Lisbon/Bosco after his death, but ends up as Jisbon =]. It is sorta based on a mini-plot running through "A Cinderella Story****" but is by no means a fairytale, Enjoy! xx

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**It was a few months after Bosco's death when Lisbon came into work one morning and found a large package on her desk.

Glancing into the bullpen she closed the door, it was deserted at the moment, Jane was sleeping or pretending to sleep on the sofa, but the others hadn't arrived yet, she was half an hour early so she could safely look at the package without interruption for at least half an hour.

Lifting the heavy package Lisbon sat down on her couch and pulled the letter off of the packaging, she opened it carefully and immediately knew what the letter was about when she saw the familiar writing of Mandy Bosco.

_Dear Teresa,_

_Sam specified in his will that you should have this. He also left a message for you and asked me to pass it on so here it is:_

"_This book contains some real lessons you will learn in life. There is a note inside for you, hidden on the most important page; it will explain a lot of things."_

_I didn't look for the note, but I think I know what it might say, I know he loved you and in the end he told me about the affair. I don't hold it against you Teresa, he loved you for a long time, I just wish I had known sooner so you and him could have spent more time together._

_It shouldn't have ended this way, but I'll always think of you like the sister I didn't have and the kids miss you, come visit soon, please._

_I hope you're doing okay, lots of love, Mandy._

By the time she had finished reading the note Lisbon had tears brimming her eyes, she quickly wiped them away feeling guilty. She hadn't ever wanted Mandy to find out, she loved the woman like a sister and she felt like she had betrayed her now for not telling her sooner.

Lisbon knew what was in the package already from the hint that Sam had left in his will. Still, she opened it with trembling hands and had to take a deep breath when her fingers grasped around a familiar book. She ran her hands over the brown leather front cover, written on the cover in what was once glossy gold writing, but was now faded were the words "Fairy Tales."

Lisbon let a few tears drop onto the old leather cover, this book meant a lot to her. Her mother had given it to her when she was 6 years old and had said, "When you read the tales in this book look closer baby because this book contains some real lessons you will learn in life." At the time she hadn't understood, but as she got older it all made sense and the book had helped her through so much, for every problem she had the book had a problem similar. She lost her mother at a young age, just like Cinderella did and she had a horrible step mother just like so many of her Princesses in the book did. Luckily she didn't have the horrible step-sisters, but when her father passed away the book didn't have a way to solve that. She had lost faith in the book after that, but every so often she had read one of the familiar tales.

When she left home and moved to San Francisco the book had come with her and stayed under her bed in its little place. When she had met Sam Bosco her life became a fairytale as she fell for him in a whirlwind of emotions, everything happened so fast and she remembered every moment of it. Her first day on his team, the first case she closed, the way he smiled at her after that first case closed pizza, the first time she looked in his eyes and felt sparks fly, sparks that she had only ever had with one man after that…Lisbon let herself cry as she remembered the affair, she had known it was wrong because she loved Mandy like a sister and she knew that she and Sam loved each other and their little boy, but it didn't matter to her how wrong it was, because she remembered lying in that hotel room laughing with Sam and everything felt right.

The affair had lasted for around a year when Lisbon decided it was too much and that she couldn't do it anymore, she needed all or nothing and she knew it was nothing she would be getting because he loved Mandy, but Sam said he would leave her, he'd file a divorce, all he wanted was her, Sam had told her.

It had almost happened, Sam had spoken to a lawyer about a divorce, but then Mandy had told him she was pregnant and he couldn't leave her then. Lisbon understood and watched as Sam and his wife became closer again, the baby was born, a little girl, Marian Teresa Bosco.

Lisbon remembered the night the baby was born, how Mandy had called to tell her, how she'd faked happiness and said congratulations, how she'd broken down as soon as she hung up. She remembered getting the book out and thumbing through the familiar pages, they all reminded her of the happy times with Sam, not a single fairytale in the book had anything that could comfort her in that moment. She remembered crying all night and waking up in the morning no longer needing the book, it was with a whole new perspective that she wrapped it in pink paper and gave it to Sam at the hospital, she smiled at him, "Give this book to Marian when she's old enough to read and tell her to pay close attention because it contains some real lessons she will learn in life."

With a sad smile to Sam, she kissed Marian on the forehead and Mandy on the cheek. Lisbon remembered going back to the office and handing in her resignation, 2 days later she was offered a job as a team leader at the CBI in Sacramento and she had been here ever since.

Sighing and putting the book aside Lisbon wiped her eyes, it had been a long time since she had seen that book, a lot of years and Marian must be around 10 now, she wanted Marian to keep the book, she would send it back she decided. Set on sending the book back she lifted it up to put it back into its packaging, but then she remembered that Sam had said he had left a note in the book, on the most important page.

Lisbon frowned, what page could be the most important? She decided that her best course of action would be to flick through the pages and she did just that, stopping when a note fell out towards the end of the book. Lisbon leant down and picked the note up, glancing at the chapter of the book with a small smile, it was the classic fairytale, "Cinderella." Lisbon knew exactly why Sam had put the note in that page.

The first 'office party' if you could call it that, of the year at SF PD was a Halloween fairytale themed ball and Lisbon had gone as Cinderella, it had been a joke with her best friends from SF PD, Laura, Reba and Avery had decided to go with a Cinderella theme, she and Laura were close and as Laura was going as the fairy Godmother she convinced Lisbon to be Cinderella. It had been after that party when the affair with Sam started.

She liked to reminisce as though she and Sam were just lovers and nothing was wrong, but even thinking back made her stomach lurch because it _had_ been an affair and it _had_ been wrong and it shouldn't have happened, but it did and Lisbon knew she shouldn't have loved Sam, but she had and in a way she supposed she still did.

She wasn't sure what the note would say if she was honest with herself so it was with nervous, shaking hands that she read it:

_Dear Teresa_

_Thank you for making my life better and for giving me that one year of pure happiness. I do love Mandy, she and you both know that, but I never loved her in the way I loved you. I know it was only a year and you moved away and it was a long time with no contact, but I never stopped thinking about you and I would like to think you felt the same about me._

_I hope you continue to do amazing things and save peoples lives and I hope you will find someone one day and settle down and have kids because you deserve it, you're brilliant. I do have a suspicion that you've already found that someone, but as for settling down with him, well that might take a while. Have I ever told you that you fall for the wrong men?"_

Lisbon chuckled at the comment in the letter, she felt silly for laughing and crying at the same time but she couldn't help it. She knew exactly who Sam was referring to and she knew he was right; she did fall for the wrong men, all the time.

"_I just left this letter to say goodbye. If anything should happen to me I want you to know that I always loved you, all those years when I saw what you were doing at the CBI, I don't think I've ever been more proud and coming to work with you in this last year was a blessing, the best I ever had so thank you so much Teresa, for everything._

_P.S - When you eventually get together with Jane don't let him be an ass to you and help him Teresa because you are the only one who can stop this madness with Red John and revenge. The only feeling in the world more powerful than revenge is love and he loves you, probably more than I ever could. So help him, stop him, make him a better man, he deserves it._

_All my love, always Sam."_

Lisbon swallowed a lump in her throat as the tears fell, she grasped the note tightly, Sam had always known her well, but in the letter he had gotten everything perfectly right, especially everything he had said about Jane.

She couldn't save Jane though, he was wrong about that, no one could save Jane from the downward spiral towards his revenge, no one could change his mind, he was killing Red John and that was the final verdict. He didn't love her either; she loved him, a lot. She hadn't felt this way since the whirlwind affair with Sam all those years ago, but looking in Janes eyes she felt that spark again and she knew her feelings were strong, but he didn't love her back because he couldn't love, he didn't have the emotional capacity to love anyone else again.

The thoughts of Jane sent more tears pouring down her face and she didn't even bother to wipe them away this time, she missed Sam and this letter had only made her miss him more, it was a blessing in a way, one that Jane had never got. Sam was happy for her and wanted her to settle down with someone, someone like Jane, she added in her head. Jane's wife had died far too suddenly for her to even leave a will let alone a letter such as the one Sam had left. When you were a cop it was different though, she knew that, everyday just working on a case she risked her life, it hit her close to home when Van Pelt was shot and of course when Sam passed away.

Sam had known when he took the Red John case on that it was dangerous, that must have been why he wrote the letter, as a back-up plan, just in case. Swallowing a lump in her throat not for the first time that morning Lisbon wished it hadn't been a good plan, she wished he hadn't needed it, that he was alive and well, at home with his family, but as the tears streamed down her face she knew she wasn't fooling herself, he was dead and buried.

The package and the letter must have thrown Lisbon off because she had completely lost track of time and didn't realise it until Patrick Jane walked into her office. She saw him come in, but didn't make an effort to speak to him; she just faced the other way and let him glance curiously at her and then the book. When he saw the tears his gaze became worried and he joined her on the couch, unbeknownst to Lisbon, he was reading Sams letter over her shoulder.

"I'm sorry." He said, being careful to advert his eyes from the letter so she wouldn't know he had been reading it. Wiping her eyes Lisbon turned around, "Don't say that." She said, she hated those words and Jane knew it, he gave her a small smile of comfort as an apology and held out his arms.

She gratefully let him slide his arms around her and hold her as she contemplated on the events of the morning, "Sam sent me a fairy tale book I gave his daughter 10 years ago, my Mom gave me it when I was 6 and I thought I was ready to let it go, but I guess sometimes even adults like fairytales." Lisbon told Jane, it surprised him in a good way that she had started to trust him with her secrets and stories of her past.

He smiled softly against her hair, "It doesn't matter if you are 6 or 36, every girl wants a Prince Charming."

Lisbon chuckled, a sound that made Janes smile widen, "I always dreamed that my Prince Charming would come and take me away from my hometown and my Dad after my Mom died." She admitted.

"Did he ever come?" Jane asked gently, not wanting to upset her.

Lisbon shook her head and laughed, somewhat bitterly, "No." She answered, "And he didn't come when I was all alone in my new flat in Sacramento either, he didn't even visit or call."

Jane understood that she wasn't just talking about fairytales anymore, "Bosco?" He asked and Lisbon nodded against his chest, "But he had a wife and a newborn daughter, I understand that now, then I was just jealous and bitter."

Jane smiled at a fond memory he had of his favourite fairytale, "You know when I was a kid at the carnival my Dad used to find the highest hill around and he'd take me there with some snacks and a book and we would sit under the stars and he'd read to me." He chuckled, "I used to always ask him to read Beauty and the Beast, it was my absolute favourite."

Lisbon chuckled, "Fairytales are for girls Jane." She teased.

Jane smiled, "I know, but there was something about that one. How she fell in love with the beast even though he was cruel and corrupt, but then in the end because of her he became a man again, she made him a better person, its not so hard to believe that sort of thing really happens, is it?" He asked.

Lisbon lifted her head from his chest to look into his eyes, he was searching her gaze for something, anything and they were so sincere, he wasn't just talking about the story anymore and they both knew it.

"I guess it isn't." She told him in a quiet voice.

He smiled softly at her, "In the story it took a while for the Beast to become a Prince, but she gradually made him better and he got there in the end, these things just take time, right?"

Lisbon nodded, understanding him completely now, "Yeah." She said with a smile, "They just take time."

And as she put her head on Janes chest again and he tightened his grip on her she smiled softly to herself and felt as if Sam had been the one to do this, silently she thanked him and knew that wherever he was he would be happy now because she was happy and Mandy was getting better and everything was on the mend again.

Sam would always have a place in her heart, that wouldn't change, but Jane owned a huge chunk of it too and it was time to let go of her past and embrace her future, a lesson she had learned from a helpful little book.

**The End!**

**A/N - Total cheese? I was aiming for a mixture of angst and fluff if that even makes sense! Anyways I hope you enjoyed this little oneshot guys!**

**Oh and anyone recognise the quote or the whole book thing? Yes I confess, I sort of tweaked that little mini-plot of "A Cinderella Story" to fit the Mentalist hehe!**

**Thanks for Reading! xxx**


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